We didn't choose the pirate life

[touchofcashmere]

Who: Stede Bonnet, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Lucius Spriggs, Skulduggery, John Watson, Darcy LeJeune, Diana York, Ava, Yuri Lowell, Clarke Griffin, Beetlejuice, Jinx, Jim Jimenez and Hiram
What: Pirate Crew Meet & Greet
When: 5/27
Where: Bellona Theater
Warnings None yet




Everyone at some point will get an invite to the theater, either pressed into their hand or shoved under their door. The stage is set with black curtains hanging in the background and on each seat there will be a little gift basket with a black ribbon, a name, a candy bar and a black pen with a little spiral notebook.

In each notebook, Stede has written a little note of encouragement. He will wait for them all to find their seats before he begins.

Comments

Lucius after the Meet and Greet (Open)

[draughtsman]

That was an absolute unabashed shipwreck of a group activity. Sure, there were a lot of net positives, but that closing ceremony was, to put it mildly: stunning. So now, as everyone trickles out, Lucius is gathering up what they've all left behind. He knows the ghosts will do it but this is both habit and gives him some time to not ponder his imminent demise. (Also he's a bit worried that he'll lose someone's flag design and he can't have that.)

He can be found collecting paper, saving snacks, or, much later, attempting to pry Blackbeard's sword out of the stage.

[decohere]

"Do you need help with that?"

Ava comes back after having wasted no time to Get Out, realizing she'd left her little gift basket behind in all the commotion. She's grasping it with both hands now, hovering uncertainly by the stage and watching Lucius struggle with the sword. That was a weird experience and she has Questions and has no idea where to even begin.

[draughtsman]

Lucius, who is leaning his weight to try and leverage this damn thing out of the wood, gives a heave and then lets out a frustrated and very loud sigh. It's cathartic, really. When he looks back, he sees Ava standing by watching him and takes a deep nasal breath.

"Yes," he decides, firmly. He is about an inch from either losing it and taking a fire ax to the stage itself, or leaving the sword and risking the bloody consequences. He will take all the help he can get.

He lets the sword go (it doesn't even so much as wobble which feels...rude, frankly) and throws his arms up.

"Please--yes, pretty please even."

[decohere]

She feels a bit sorry for Lucius, after all that. "Do they at least appreciate you?" she asks, hopping up on the stage with an ease she hasn't shown off much.

"You don't have to ask quite that nicely, with me," Ava teases. She's not the sort for manners, but she does like to gauge people by the sincerity of their usage of it. Ava saunters over, places her basket down, pushes up her sweatshirt sleeves as if she's about to undertake quite a task.

And then simply wraps her fingers around the sword, renders it intangible with a faint blur to her arm, and gives it a light tug out. "Look, I'm King Arthur," she jokes.

[draughtsman]

"All great artists are unappreciated in their time," Lucius says which is a shorthand way of saying: occasionally, he thinks? He shrugs, just to drive that home, and steps back as Ava takes the spot he just occupied. He's not sure she'll be able to wrench it free but--then it goes intangible and just sails through the deck and to freedom.

Lucius, wide eyed, has to resist the urge to clap again. (His hands get about halfway to clapping before he stops them.)

"I think drawing Blackbeard's sword out of a deck makes you Pirate King, actually. Which is just as well, England is awful."

[decohere]

"Hm," she responds a bit sympathetically. "Guess it's easy enough, when you go underestimated and unnoticed, to get away with stealing things. Especially from other... artists." Ava uses the term loosely. She examines the sword, the weight of it, the edge of the blade as she drags her finger along it. Neat.

"And it truly is, Fuck England," Ava replies with her dainty little British accent.

[draughtsman]

So far nobody has disagreed with his criticisms of England. Makes a man feel at home, really.

"Oh, yes, the pick pocketing--" he starts and has the good grace to look a little sheepish. He didn't actually steal from her person directly, but hers is the only thing he intended to keep. "You don't mind if I...keep that drawing, do you?

"It's just that it's quite good, very usual. I don't see art like that often so, when it crops up...I like to...steal it."

An awkward way to put that, but not incorrect. He grimaces apologetically but does not append the statement.

[decohere]

Anything decent that they have, they stole not so politely as they pretend to be. So there's that.

"You're... welcome to it," Ava says with the sort of hesitant confusion of somebody wanting her crumpled up trash. "I'm not really patient enough for drawing anything realistic, my hands don't exactly cooperate." Most things she tries to doodle ends up looking a mess.

But she knows historically, art really was limited to those that could afford the time and the supplies, and that what constituted good art was so narrowly defined. "But I'm guessing I don't get to keep this sword." She gives it a little twirl.

[draughtsman]

"No, that I have to give back," Lucius laments. "If I hadn't pissed Blackbeard off, personally, more times than I can count on one hand....well...."

He probably still wouldn't just leave it there, honestly, but he'd be less careful about it. He holds out a hand and grimaces. He really. Is not one for swords on a good day and this is not the best day.

"But I have, and needs must," he adds with a sigh.

"Do you draw a lot?" he asks, his tone carefully cultivated in that way that people do when they really, really want to see the rest of someone's art.

[light_mischief]

Skulduggery stays seated for a solid three minutes after the whole thing ends, mostly because he's struggling between saving and deleting the video he took of Stede and Blackbeard's fight. When he thinks he might delete it, he... sends it to Lucius instead, and then promptly decides that he won't delete it after all.

But you know, now Lucius can save the memory, too!

[draughtsman]

Lucius is watching everyone start to leave when his phone pings and he recieves a very high quality video of Blackbeard and the Captain's swordfight. It starts right at his announcements (He doesn't actually sound like that, does he?) And goes all the way through to his scrambling back on stage. It is a full, bookended chronicle of the whole catastrophe. Lucius just stares at his phone and then cranes his neck to look over at Skulduggery.

After a moment of silent staring he texts him.

Thanks.💔🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[light_mischief]

(The quality is remarkable, really. His hand doesn't shake at all.)

He responds to that in person, after collecting his jacket and heading down to the table. Truthfully, he'd probably have only saved the good bits, the parts where Stede and Ed looked to be having fun and most certainly the ferocity of Stede's second volley, but that would require editing the video. He might be a modern 400-year-old skeleton, but he's not that good.

"Keep it for when he laments on how poorly he performed." Said within comfortable earshot of Lucius. "It was a good display, aside from the last bit. He should see it."

[draughtsman]

Lucius nods and makes a sound in the back of his throat that indicates that this is both hard and he doesn't want to. But he will. He slips his phone back into his jacket pocket and continues clearing the table at a snail's pace.

"I'll show it to him," he agrees and, because he and Skulduggery have been 'talking shit' all night over their phones, he feels compelled to add: "He's a strange little man but he is extremely competent on occasion."

And, because he's Lucius:

"Veeeery repressed, but competent."

[light_mischief]

Skulduggery chuckles. "I have no doubt of any of that." Truthfully, the only thing that seems to be holding Stede back is... well... himself.

"He's always been that hard on himself?" Because frankly, that's probably what's keeping Stede from achieving the coolness he seems to want so badly. That desperation to prove himself has such a stranglehold on him that it's a wonder he can breathe properly.

[draughtsman]

Lucius does glance sidelong to see if they're being overheard but, no, they're probably alright. He has no problem pointing out the obvious but this is treading close to actually exposing real secrets. He's gossipy, yes, but he tries not to be generally malicious about it.

"My usual job is taking dictation and notes. Mostly notes," Lucius explains. Nobody had really questioned why his Captain needed a valet, but this is the answer to that. "See he likes to...keep track of how everything goes then workshop ways to improve. For everything. All of the time."

That sounds insane right? Lucius thought it sounded insane but he was being paid, then, so he hadn't objected.

"We met one of his old school chums once and, well, let's just say that it explained quite a lot. The Captain is...extremely motivated to show his mettle and it doesn't seem like he's had a lot of...positive reinforcement to fall back on."

[light_mischief]

It explains a lot, really. What would it take, though, for Stede to finally find his bearings? Skulduggery would have thought that a down-and-out, sweaty, frankly awesome bout against Blackbeard would do it, but apparently not?

He does not get it at all, man.

"Well, all the more reason for him to see that video." Skulduggery waves a hand, and a few pencils under the table float up for him to easily grab. Look, he's helping! "Maybe he won't need so much external approval if he can see himself objectively." He tilts his head. "You handled it well, too, by the way. It's good of you to help out."

He sees you, Lucius, and he can appreciate the work you're doing because he sure as shit wouldn't be doing it!

[draughtsman]

Lucius is so proud of you for helping Skulduggery, and don't give him that look.

"Well, it's my job so..." Lucius deflects and takes those pencils to tuck them into the pack with the rest. Nevermind that he isn't being paid and there is literally no reason for him to continue on like he does apart from familiarity and routine.

"Hopefully he'll actually watch that recording, but who knows," Lucius continues. He's not as confident in Stede's ability to be a cool badass as Stede is, but making him see that he is fairly badass would probably be easier than trying to point out his real value as a leader. He'd already tried the latter, after all, and failed miserably.

"Maybe he comes back around chipper as ever because Blackbeard convinced him he was cool? That'd be nice."

[lightconductor]

"I've been to more parties here than I have been to in at least a year," Watson remarks casually, stooping to pick up some discarded paper from the floor. If he's here, he might as well help. "They've been, ah, interesting. To say the least."

[draughtsman]

"Interesting is certainly a word," Lucius says before he can stop himself. He can't say he's sad to see Watson bending over to scoop up paper, his own back is already killing him. Too much jumping up and down off the stage for one lifetime.

"Catastrophic might be better?" he suggests wryly and holds out a hand for the papers.

[lightconductor]

He puts the papers in Lucius's hand, with a shake of his head. "Well, the last party, I shot at someone, so on the whole this was probably better. Still, it was... ah, rather tense there, on the stage, a couple times."

There's a question in his voice, along the lines of 'uh is everything okay,' but it's easily ignorable.

[draughtsman]

Lucius takes the papers and he catches that unspoken question. He stares at Watson and debates whether he's going to actually ask or if he's politely waiting. Politely waiting it is.

"It's...usually pretty tense," Lucius answers and that is both helpful and entirely unhelpful, as is his way. Lucius shrugs as he tucks all the pages together and tries to get them straight and orderly.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Lucius asks, pointedly. He hasn't forgotten that Watson doubted his assessment. He'll take that acknowledgement now.

[lightconductor]

Watson pauses, trying to consider how he should answer that.

"It was very entertaining," he says, "until it got difficult at the end. The two of them... well."

He shakes his head. "I have done some very ridiculous things while lovesick, but perhaps not quite that bad."

[draughtsman]

Oh, why did you have to phrase it like that, you sweet, pretty, pretty man? Lucius's look of vague superiority is dashed immediately and replaced with a sort of forlorn acceptance. He casts a sidelong glance at the stage and then turns his attention back to his paper gathering.

"They're both disasters, but it would be very nice if they were disasters together," Lucius says. "Unfortunately, all I can do is mitigate."

[lightconductor]

Because he's a goddamn wordsmith.

"Why on Earth aren't they, then?" Watson can't stand here not helping, so he returns to picking up paper as well. "Bonnet hardly blinks at that sort of thing in other men. Blackbeard, I don't know well enough to say. Is Bonnet just that loyal to his wife?"

Honestly that sort of commitment is unexpected from a pirate captain, but the tragedy of that sort of unfulfilled romance wounds Watson in the pit of his romantic, shippy soul. He likes a happy ending.

"Mind you, I'm not sure how to force them to admit to anything, I've only just stumbled into this mess."

[draughtsman]

"I...didn't know he had a wife until someone here told me, so, I can't really speak to that," Lucius admits in a tone that underscores how ridiculous he finds that fact. A wife? He's still not over it.

"I've had suggestions that I should lock them in a closet until they work it out, but that might require planning. And tranquilizers."